National Science Bowl Competitors Win Trip to Colorado

Golden, Colo., May 5, 1997 -- A Wooton High School team from Rockville, Md. won an all expenses paid opportunity to explore Colorado's energy resources this summer by answering difficult questions in what has become known as high school's "World Series of Science."

The team today won second place in the 1997 National Science Bowl in Chevy Chase, Md. The trip will include visiting a geothermal site in Glenwood Springs, observing solar architecture ranging from ancient Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde National Park, to Earthship houses built from recycled materials in Montrose and Ouray. The students also will tour U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities in Golden at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Rocky Flats. The Colorado trip is sponsored by DOE's NREL, Golden Field Office, Denver Regional Support Office, Rocky Flats Office and Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site.

Teams from Aurora's Eagle Crest and Smoky Hill High Schools and Fort Collins High School represented Colorado in the National Science Bowl after winning state Science Bowl competitions. They competed against 42 other winning teams from regional competitions across the nation. All three Colorado teams placed in the top 50 percent with the Fort Collins team tied for sixth place and Smoky Hill team among the top 16. The team from Fort Collins received a Sportsmanship Award as well.

The competition included a number of round-robin and double-elimination contests. Student teams faced off in a fast-paced match of questions about physics, math, biology, astronomy, chemistry, computers and the earth sciences. First-place winners will travel to Australia and the third-place team heads to South Carolina to participate in science activities.

The National Science Bowl is sponsored by DOE's Office of Energy Research. Since DOE began the National Science Bowl seven years ago, the competition has evolved into one of the department's premier educational programs to help stimulate students' interests in science and math.